You’re splitting one thing into two things when the first part is just a step on the way to the second part. I’d say it was a fantasy, but I do remember when Dr. Martins were good.
Having companies establish quality product then to slowly degrade them over time… or have other companies produce competing crappier versions is Capitalism.
Both parts, since you suggest there are 2 different versions, are not actually 2 different versions. They are both part of the same system, and one feeds the other.
Welcome.
There are still pockets of quality out there. Buy wisely.
I have never bought an after-sales product warranty (= insurance policy) - they are a rip-off, in the main. But then, I live somewhere with semi-reasonable consumer rights legislation.
To create new topics go here and if you are signed in, in the top right hand corner is …
But I do not know what the current rules are about how long you have to be here before you will see that. Participate in a few threads and I’m sure it will turn up soon enough if it is not there immediately.
PS Also enshittification rises and falls with regulation. Read Cory’s stuff on this and that becomes very clear. De-regulation has not been happening forever!
I have my web preference set to “Do Not Track” and I only block trackers. It turns out that blocking trackers blocks all ads because none of the sites I visit honors my preference.
I might still end up blocking ads just so the content I’m trying to see wouldn’t jump up and down while my browser tries to add the ads in apparently random dimensions. Honestly, a banner ad that took up half my screen but held still and didn’t change shape would be preferable to that nonsense.
This suggests it was not fit for purpose and the retailer would be liable for replacing it. Nothing to do with the manufacturer’s warranty. In some ways, another way of looking at insurance-based after-sales product ‘warranty’ policies is that they are actually a policy protecting the retailer from the costs of ‘unfit quality’ manufacturer problems that UK law makes a retailer liability, under a policy whose premium is paid by the consumer. They are an enshittified by-product of prior enshittification.
Did consumer durables endure longer before these policies came along? One suspects so. Shoddier (cheaper) consumer durables, gave rise to an opportunity for insurers to sell more ‘protection’.
That’s not surprising. Advertisers love online ads because they can do things that TV or printed ads cannot - identify and track you. Why would they buy ad space and NOT do that?
I’ve been dealing with a situation where our ability to access materials from other libraries is dependent on a pass-through service, built on a platform that hasn’t been updated in at least 10 years. Doesn’t stop them from tacking on an inflationary increase to their annual “support” bills. That they have the gall to still call their company “Innovative Interfaces” is beyond me. But they’ve been bought out first by a major database supplier, then by a data analytics company, so I suppose that’s what you get.
I’m really looking forward to ditching them for an open-source alternative in a few years.
There’s been a slow downhill slide from our library’s main software provider (including the latest fiasco where an argument between them and a third party vendor app caused the app to abruptly stop working), and there haven’t been any major upgrades to our system for years. It’s not unlike Amazon’s walled Kindle/Audible garden, where it would take a major chunk of change to install new software, and we already have big sunk-cost issues, so unless the whole thing stops working we’re likely stuck with it for years.
I think the most charitable interpretation is: in competitive markets, where purchasers have the ability to compare, and the choice on whether or not to buy, a set of rules that prevents a race to the bottom means that everyone will need to compete on some measure of quality to distinguish themselves.
Sure. The real catch is: so many things don’t actually qualify as markets. When you can’t choose whether or not to purchase, can’t get reasonable information to make a decision, the companies have a cartel and are rightly convinced that you can’t leave for anywhere better, the whole think breaks down horribly. Enshittification is, through a removal of real competitive pressure, the removal of any market benefits for allllllll of the down sides.
People defend it as ‘capitalism’, but really it’s just poorly negotiated feudalism. Pick your corporate over-entity to champion.
So you’re saying “Enshittification Capitalism” is a unique form of capitalism while I’m saying enshittification is as much a part of capitalism as tires are a part of a car. Got it. Fine. A2D.
Traditionally, all those kind of things are supposed to be taken care of by the government, like roads, water, harbors, etc. These days, any small niche that can be exploited for gain will soon be occupied by some for-profit company, as soon as the government can be persuaded to let them take over. For a reasonable fee of course.
Not quite but there are degrees and overlaps of enshittification.
Some might say (as I suspect you might) that all capitalism enshittifies. As I say, it is a question of degree. But Cory’s view of enshittification, a far as I can see, is not that it is capitalism’s fault and therefore unavoidable, it is that appropriately regulated markets are less shitty and what he terms enshittification has de-regulation, regulatory capture, or unwillingness to just enforce the regs that do exist, right at the heart of its root cause.
There is literally no regulation, regulatory capture or willingness to enforce the regs that would have kept Dr. Martins awesome.
Reducing quality, changing process and materials and offering less for the same cost to increase profit is a fundamental part of capitalism. It is baked in. People can, as you suggest, take the view that it is avoidable if the government steps in. But most of the products that have decreased in quality do so in a way that is not regulatable.
This is the UK, the forecast is always, “Cloudy, sunny spells, chance of precipitation”
The weather forecasting, the weather, or everything? And, I concur, it is all Thatcher’s fault.
I can’t remember who I heard it from but an Australian, newly arrived in the UK commented on how lovely the weather was today, and how he planned to have a barbie in a couple of days. Once his hosts finally managed to stop laughing at his optimism, they explained how UK weather works.
the process describes a middle layer first capturing users, then capturing vendors, and then squeezing both. doc martins is just a producer. they have been captured by amazon. you can always buy different boots, but if all boot sellers are all on amazon, amazon wins no matter which boots you buy.
for instance, amazon can extract fees by degrading service ( ex. shipping, search result placement, ads, … ) which then both you and manufacturer have to pay to “upgrade” back to what used to be standard service. it hurts everybody except bezos.
And, I concur, it is all Thatcher’s fault.